SIBU: Police here believe they have solved the murder of Madeline Chadon, the housewife found dead in her bedroom in Hua Kiew Road, with her starving daughter locked inside with her.
REMANDED: The suspect (right) being brought to the police station to assist in investigation.
They did not rule out the possibility that the 36-year-old was killed by her husband following a quarrel, and within four hours after the murder discovery, they tracked down the husband.
The husband was remanded yesterday for seven days.
As for her four-year-old daughter, she is now in safe hands.
Madeline’s brothers and sisters who rushed to the hospital on hearing her death are now at the bedside of the girl, identified as Nurzelin Abdullah.
The four-year-old is apparently ignorant of what was happening as she did not even understand that her mother had died.
She told a sister of Madeline at her hospital bedside that “mum was very lazy. She did not want to wake up to cook food for me.”
Her words brought tears to the loved ones in the family, and Madeline’s elder brother, George, is intending to adopt the girl.
The police do not rule out that the murder had arisen from domestic violence, as stress could have made the couple quarrel often, leading the husband to beat Madeline again on Monday that led to her death.
They believe the security-guard husband could have used his baton to bash her up.
The police have seized the baton.
Before the murder, the husband had moved out because of the stress at home, but the man in his 30s had been returning once in a while.
The police believe the husband had returned last Friday, and this again turned into a fierce quarrel.
He left, and returned on Monday morning again.
The police believe the quarrel then led the husband beating up Madeline again, and this time with his security-guard baton.
He is believed to have struck Madeline from behind at least twice.
The housewife had wounds at the back of her head and neck.
The husband then left, not knowing the blows could be fatal.
Madeline was believed to have walked back into the room with her daughter and locked themselves inside, for fear her violent husband would return.
The housewife was believed to have felt uncomfortable, and she went to bed to rest and later died.
Madeline was lying on her back, clad only in sarong when the police discovered her dead.
The police did not find any food in the room, except for a little bit of uncooked rice and plain water.
Madeline’s family members believe the little girl did not leave the room after her mother died.
They said Madeline was first married at 15 when she met her first husband in Kuala Lumpur, where both were working.
The woman had three children from her first marriage – a 17-year-old daughter now working in Kuala Lumpur, a 15-year-old son studying in Form Five and a 15-year-old girl now studying in Form Three in Kuala Lumpur. Madeline remarried four years ago.
Before the discovery of Madeline’s death on Tuesday, neighbours had felt something amiss because the upper floor where she stayed with her girl was too quiet.
They called in the youth who used to collect rental for the house owner.
The youth climbed in and found the little girl lying on the bloodstained bed beside the body of her dead mother.